Tints

About tints

A tint is
a screened (lighter) version of a color. Tinting is an economical
way to make additional spot color variations without having to pay
for additional spot color inks. Tinting is also a quick way to create
lighter versions of process colors, although it doesn’t reduce the
cost of printing process colors. As with non-tinted colors, it’s
best to name and store tints in the Swatches panel so that you can easily
edit all instances of that tint in your document.

Spot color and tints

A tint of a spot color is printed on the same printing plate
as the spot color. A tint of a process color multiplies each of
the CMYK process inks by the tint percentage; for example, an 80%
tint of C10 M20 Y40 K10 results in C8 M16 Y32 K8.

Because colors and tints update together, if you edit a swatch,
all objects that use a tint of that swatch update accordingly. You
can also edit the base swatch of a named tint using the Swatch Options
command in the Swatches panel menu; this updates any other tints
based on the same swatch.

The tint range in Adobe Creative Suite 3 is 0% to 100%; the lower the number,
the lighter the tint.

Create and edit tints

You
can adjust the tint of an individual object, or create tints by
using the Tint slider in the Swatches panel or Color panel. The
tint range is from 0% to 100%; the lower the number, the lighter
the tint will be.

Because colors and tints update together, if you edit a swatch,
all objects that use a tint of that swatch update accordingly. You
can also edit the base swatch of a named tint using the Swatch Options
command in the Swatches panel menu; this updates any other tints
based on the same swatch.

Create a tint swatch using the
Swatches panel

In the Swatches panel, select a color swatch.

Select the arrow next to the Tint box.

Drag the Tint slider, and click the New Swatch button or
select New Tint Swatch in the Swatches panel menu.

The tint appears in the Swatches panel with the name of its base
color and the percentage of the tint.

Create a tint swatch using the
Color panel

In the Swatches panel, select a swatch.

In the Color panel, drag the Tint slider, or enter a tint
value in the Percentage box.

In the Color panel menu, click Add To Swatches.

Drag the Tint slider and then click Add To Swatches.

Create an unnamed tint

In the Swatches panel, select the Fill box or the
Stroke box.

Drag the Tint slider, or enter a tint value in the percentage
box.

Edit a tint or base color swatch

In the Swatches
panel, double-click the tint swatch.

Do one of the following, and click OK:

To edit the tint, change the Tint value. This updates all
objects using that tint swatch.

To edit the tint’s base color swatch, change the Color Mode
or the Color Mode values. This also updates all other tints based
on that same color swatch.

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